Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-01-27
4 FAIL OF 400 FEET.
Young Mrs. EownSley's Thrilling
EN perIence.

CHICAGO, Jan, 23.--Mrs. T. J. Townsley.
the Chicago lady who was an occupant Of
the stage coach that toppled a distance of
400 feet down Independence Pass, Col
orado, last month, without sustaining as
much as a scratch, arrived in this city
yesterday. Mrs. Townsley is a pre-,
possessing young lady about rs years Of
age. Describing the marvellous incident,
| the details of which have not been
| printed before, she says: Sat daybreak
on the morning of December 18th was
awakened at my hotel in Leadville and
| informed that the Aspen stage coach was
waiting for me. II was bitter cold. and
was showing so densely that the driver
had to pilot me to the coach. I had on a
heavy, double fold velvet dress, seal
skin sack, buffalo robe pinned over my
shoulders, my head covered by fur cap.
rnd my face enveloped in a shawl, allow
| ing an aperture for my eyes Despite oil
these projections was frightfully cold
The coach WIS drawn by six
horses and was ON wheels We
were preceded by the Granite coach
which was on runners. The road over
Elk Mountain Is q natural one that will
| admit of but single coach passing. At
the apex of tho mountain the Granite
coach halted in the station blasted out of
the rock and allowed us to go ahead.
Here the descent began. The road at
this point runs at an incline of 45o. The
driver put on his lock chain to the wheels,
thus virtually converting them into run.
ners. The vehicle, despite these pre-
cautions, and by its own weight, went
down at a frightful rate. We could
barely keep our seats. We balanced our
selves as best we could Running up
from the truck, and through the box of
the coach, was perpendicular bar of
steel called the king pin. l chung to this,
and managed to keep myself right side
up. Down the narrow path in the side
of the mountain we went with the horses
in a mad gallop, to keep the coach from
running them down. We were rounding
Independence Pass, when suddenly the
driver cried:
Jump! Jump for your"
He never finished the sentence. He had
been holding the coach as near the EN-.
bankment as the narrow pass would per-
init. Ahead of him he saw heavy bowl
der topple and fall down the mountain
side and into the path. This caused him
to make the cry of warning. The obstruc
ton was but 20 yards ahead of him, and
it was beyond human power to stay the
impetus the coach had gotten coming
down the incline. saw the driver leap.
Inside we all held on to the king pin.
Down we went, and in another instant the
forward wheels struck the rock. The hind
part of the coach was thrown forward and
outward, and the king-pin snapped
asunder like reed. The box, with all in
it, went over the precipice ON its side, and
through the window fell out. Less for
tunate than myself, the coach and my
fellow-tourists lodged in a crevice
on the side of precipice some
one hundred and eighty feet below the
road. was thrown out with such force
that cleared this crag and kept on and
down the full 400 feet to the bed of the
canon and into bank of snow, cutting
my way into it as if it was water, head
first. The Granite coach, just to the
rear of us, pulled into notch in the
rocks, and the driver and some pros
pectors got out and began to climb down
to where 1 had lodged. Armed with
shoyels, they began to dig me out, and,
it is curious to relate, the one flesh wound
received was from the blade of shovel,
which plowed up q furrow in my ankle
when they reached me. l was finally dug
Oub uhpohnolount hAiu W hll appearances
dead. Restoratives were administered,
and was taken up and carried
to the toll house at the head
of the cliff. Here my hands and
limbs were rubbed and my face slapped
until my cheeks were raw. But all to no
avail. was black in the face, and there
was no audible or visible respiration. I
was left in the care of the toll.keeper and
and the Granite coach passengers, while
the two drivers started for Aspen, 10
miles distant, to summon surgical aid
One of the party returned at midnight
with doctor. In the meantime 1 had
revived and had, in company with the
toll. keeper, gone down in sleigh to the
dinner station, three miles below, and was
administering to the wounded and dying
ALI of the rest had sustained frigbtful in
juries in their fall of 1870 feet, while /,
falling over twice the distance, cane out
of the disaster, sustaining no other in
iuries than bruise inflicted by the
shovel"